Kelly
'Trip Advisor' Similarly to this wiki, TripAdvisor is a website with user-generated content. The travel website is free and allows its users to post reviews about hotels, flights, restaurants, and other aspects of their travels. The site is growing rapidly and contains over 75 million reviews by 62 million users. With this kind of traffic, it is no secret that this is an invaluable marketing tool for businesses in the travel industry. Why does user-generated content matter? A survey by the Association of British Travel Agents found that 57% of people booked their last vacation online. For young adults ages 25 to 44, 68% booked online with a remarkable 51% citing a positive online review as the determining factor for their choice. When it comes down to it, people trust other people and travelers trust other travelers. By building a strong presence on TripAdvisor, business owners can benefit dramatically. One survey found that when e-commerce companies added user reviews to their sites 56% lifted conversion, 77% raised traffic, and 42% increased their average shopping basket. How has Facebook helped TripAdvisor grow? TripAdvisor began a partnership with Facebook in 2010 that has helped them to increase their brand awareness and number of site visitors. Research has shown that people who are referred to travel booking sites via Facebook are more likely to book a reservation than those who visit the site from a search engine like Google. TripAdvisor’s Facebook app has been extremely successful. In 2012, it was the only travel app in the top 20 applications. In 2012, TripAdvisor increased the number of members acquired through Facebook by more than 50%, and 35% of their new reviews are written by Facebook connected members. How can businesses use TripAdvisor as a marketing tool, successfully? It is not enough for a business to become listed on TripAdvisor – they need to utilize the site strategically. To begin, they need to build up their business’s site with plenty of reviews. Hotels can do this by sending an automated email to their guests a few days after their stay inviting them to share their vacation experience. It is also important that businesses respond to posts quickly and professionally. The more timely the response, the more people there will be reading the comments. It is imperative to respond politely and professionally whether or not the review is good or bad. A thoughtful explanation can go a long way, especially when customer feedback is actually utilized to improve the business. These improvements should be highlighted in the business’s response in an original way. Businesses should not just create generic responses. Customers should be genuinely thanked for their thoughtful feedback and be provided with unique comments. While this may seem like a lot of effort to respond to one comment, thousands of other TripAdvisor users will be reading the reviews and corresponding responses, so it is well work the effort. What limitations are there to TripAdvisor? One of the biggest concerns with using TripAdvisor as a marketing tool is the possibility of fake reviews. Competitors may create fake reviews and it can be tempting for other businesses to create their own fake reviews to compete. TripAdvisor has been scrutinized and even investigating because of the growing criticism regarding businesses’ fake reviews. However, it is important to remember that fake reviews will generally balance themselves out. Trends will still appear and users can still get a good sense of what a hotel or restaurant is like by reading several reviews, making TripAdvisor a relatively trustworthy source of information.